(But you have to admit, the cheap minigames are a huge percentage of iOS games, and also most of the time, the face of it.)

For sure, but the Wii has a huge percentage of shovelware minigame compilations, and were often the most visible games on the console.

Once you start digging around the iOS you'll find it's one of the most varied devices for games out there - for all kinds of gamers. I don't buy this idea that the games on it are somehow "less" than their console brethren.

I mean, yes, shooters and platformers are more difficult without physical controls (though there are exceptions. Max and the Magic Marker is far better with touch than pointer controls, for instance). But for most other genres the iOS platforms offer an experience that isn't really any different to the consoles.

Or to swing the whole point I'm making here around - people that have the likes of Civilization Revolution, Baldur's Gate, Riven: The Sequel to Myst, Machinarium... I don't see many of these people complaining about the quality of games on the iPad much

Everyone complaining that Square Enix is making a cash grab without using any effort, please enter "Square Enix" into your app store search bar. Square Enix has released picture galleries of the main Final Fantasy games and released them for a premium price! This really isn't anything that new.

I'm glad at least one company is not playing this silly race to the bottom price battle.

Who?

He's justifying Square Enix's right to sell a picture gallery for 7 dollars. With logic. Somehow...

although he's got a point, if you're going to release premium content on the appstore, don't price it at 99cents. All it does is devalue your product, not get you more sales

I didn't buy the picture gallery app.

However I do fully support Square Enix for doing that. Commissioning art is expensive. The idea that Square Enix (or anyone else) to give that away is laughable.

When you buy an art book for $40 or so, you're only paying $10 or thereabouts in manufacturing costs. The other $30 is for the actual work in the book. Square Enix is giving that to you for $23 less in app form. That's a bargain, not premium.

The one thing I really hate about the app store is that it is conditioning consumers to expect an awful lot, for a very low price. It's not sustainable in the slightest, so yes I do see it as a great thing that one or two companies out there are insisting that their work is worth more than a few cents.

It would be laughable if those pictures didn't have a 99.9% chance of being free on the internet. Yes, that doesn't support the artists, but people are already in a mindset that art should be free. No one's going to buy it.

It would be laughable if those pictures didn't have a 99.9% chance of being free on the internet. Yes, that doesn't support the artists, but people are already in a mindset that art should be free. No one's going to buy it.

You'd be surprised. The pictures in the art books are also readily available on the Internet. I have six of those personally, and I see them disappearing from the shelves at the book store.

Game guides continue to make money too, despite the existence of GameFAQs

It would be laughable if those pictures didn't have a 99.9% chance of being free on the internet. Yes, that doesn't support the artists, but people are already in a mindset that art should be free. No one's going to buy it.

You'd be surprised. The pictures in the art books are also readily available on the Internet. I have six of those personally, and I see them disappearing from the shelves at the book store.

Game guides continue to make money too, despite the existence of GameFAQs

But what's the difference between an art book and an image gallery? The fact that an art book is physical. This is just an digital image gallery. The appeal of art books doesn't carry over.
Unless you have evidence of digital game guides and digital "art books" selling well, the comparison between the SE pictures and an art book seems invalid.

Actually, the reason Guide Books still work is that they provide visual guides and professional explanations, which you can't get from GameFAQs. But as Tyson said, there's no difference between an image gallery and an artbook, It's only appealing for collectors, these days. Not that I don't appreciate the bonus artbooks I've gotten over the years. A good artbook provides more than just the art, such as lore, explanations, and words from the artists, but I've checked out some in the book store, and didn't see that too often (though chances are I probably looked at the cheaper ones, so take that with a grain of salt).